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I have a hot water situation. I notified the landlord since the first day I moved in that the hot water in shower/bath is not working properly. She came to see and stated that the water was warm (which it was, then turned cold minutes after the landlord left the premise). At best, it got slightly warm, but never hot. So I confirmed with her again that there's only cold (and slightly less cold) water 2 days after. I mentioned it to her a few times after that and never got a definite answer from her of what the solution to this will be. It has been 2 weeks since my move in and it's still the same. It seems her excuse was that her brother is the one doing all this work (seem like they both are landlords) and he's away and won't be back until this weekend. She said there would be someone (whom I assumed is her brother) to fix it today, and then today when the time came, she said they cancelled and will come tomorrow instead. I live in NYC and it get colder everyday. I talked to her today about the possibility of not paying full rent because I haven't been getting hot water in the past 2 weeks. She said no and told me that I could have got some hot water from the kitchen sink to take a bath since the hot water there works (kitchen sink and bathroom sink have hot water. Only the bath/shower doesn't). I have been very patient and not calling 311 even though I feel I should have. My roommate and co-lease holder also doesn't want to stay on bad terms with the landlord since the very first month. I guess I shall see if someone will come to fix it tomorrow, but is there anything I can/should do in this situation? I feel I was being treated unfairly but should I just get over it and let it go?
Do you have access to the hot water heater? If so, turn up the temperature. I turned mine up to 130 degrees and now I can take a bath without running out of hot water.
If there's warm water in the shower, then it goes cold, it sounds like it's running out of hot water. Maybe you're using up all the hot water when you use the kitchen, etc.?
Anyway, start there. It might just be that simple.
If not, then you'll have to look up the laws where you are regarding repairs, etc., and if you can withhold your rent, etc.
I don't have access to hot water heater so I can't do that. It's also not possible that I will be using up all the hot water in the kitchen. I have tried turning them (kitchen sink and bath) on separately, at different time, together at the same time, etc. so that shouldn't be the problem here.
My HWHeater has 2 elements & 2 thermastats They take turns blowing every few months. Last time they changed all 4 at once! While they were at it they cleaned a whole lot of lime out of it too!
It's time for you to report this as per the post above. I doubt this is related to your water heater. It's probably related to something in the shower/tub faucet that regulates hot/cold water mix. It's often called a mixer valve aka cartridge but different faucets have different configurations. Sometimes they go bad and when this occurs the water temparature is no longer controlled by turning the faucet. You might get all hot water or all cold or it might change from one to the other even when you don't turn the handle. In your case it's sticking on all cold water. I had the same thing occur in my shower. Once the cartridge was replaced, the situation was fixed.
This is why you are getting hot water in the sinks but only the tub/shower is the issue.
But since you are a renter you shouldn't not need to worry whether this is the faucet or water heater that is causing the problem. This is for the landlord to resolve and it should be a very high priority for the landlord.
You cannot and should not be expected to take hot water from the sink and dump it into the tub. This is unacceptable. You have waited long enough.
Thank you everyone for your responses. They finally came and fixed the hot water issue on Sunday. Although now I know the kind of person my landlord is. If there were to be the next time (pray not), I would not be this kind and wait 2 weeks to call 311. Thanks everyone again.
They didn't say anything although I notice that the faucet can now be turned a little bit more to the left (before I can only do 90 agree, now it's more like 135 degree) and I think whoever installed it made a mistake by turning the faucet too tight... which if that's the case, it's a really silly problem and I could have fixed it myself if I have the proper tool to unscrew it. The landlord also left the apartment for a bit, I believed to adjust the water temperature.
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